5 Steps to Finding Your Focus

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published by Fast Company and details five steps to help find your focus in a chaotic work environment.

Today’s workforce is becoming more decentralized as teams commonly work together remotely, across different cities, states, and countries. Much of the time, technology, the very thing that connects these remote teams and coworkers, can also be the excuse for becoming increasingly distracted at work.

Although the buzzing of a phone, chime of a computer, or that chatty coworker on your company messenger can seem like the perfect excuse to delay that project you are working on, these distractions are now commonplace and can no longer be validated. Things will not get easier as technology continues to advance, and the ability to focus and continue to produce great work amidst the clutter will be vital for employees everywhere.

Jones Loflin, coauthor of Getting to It, offers five steps to help find your focus.

1.Step Back. It is easy to become so consumed by granular tasks and our day-to-day checklists that we don’t pause long enough to find “moments of sacred idleness.” Being able to take a few moments, step away, and look at the bigger picture is becoming a lost art. Even a ten or fifteen-minute walk can create clarity around something important.

2. Define “It.” Determine the most important work by using deadlines, values, available time, and resources to arrange your day and accomplish what you can. “We may be working in a world of unlimited possibilities but we’re also in a world of limited time.” Defining what is truly possible to accomplish will allow for increased focus and mental capacity.

3. Use Your Resources. Distractions will always be part of life. Setting aside some dedicated time each day to focus and take care of common distractions will allow you to focus on bigger projects. Dedicating an hour each morning to email and turning it off for the remainder of the day will clear your mind to focus on the task at hand.